Two standard-bearers think as one in backing Ohio nuke fuel plant

Thought President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney disagreed about everything when it comes to domestic policy? Think again.

The Wall Street Journal notes that when it “comes to a struggling energy company seeking taxpayer dollars for a plant in Ohio … they are on the same page.”

The USEC Inc. plant under construction in Piketon would employ about 400 people making nuclear fuel, the newspaper says. The U.S. government says it is crucial to maintaining the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile.

But USEC “has been on federal life support since June, when the Department of Energy arranged to give it about $280 million,” according to The Journal. “The company's stock has been trading below $1 a share and it has been warned by the New York Stock Exchange it could be delisted.”

The company's future now rides on the Ohio plant, which could house thousands of centrifuges, each 40 feet tall. If successful, The Journal says, “the plant would give the U.S. an efficient, all-American source of enriched uranium for commercial nuclear power and nuclear weapons.”

But here's the hitch: The company says it needs $2 billion from a U.S. loan-guarantee program — the same program that took a $500 million hit from the bankruptcy of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC.

Sound like a boondoggle? Not to the candidates.

Mr. Romney visited Piketon last month and said he supported giving the facility "the most modern technology" to make nuclear fuel, The Journal reports.

The Obama administration agrees, saying a U.S. source of the material is necessary to avoid reliance on foreign technology.

So the message is clear: If you run a struggling energy company, move to Ohio about a year before an election. Good things almost certainly will happen.

Of more than limited benefit

Renewable energy companies could get some of the same tax and financing benefits that fossil fuel companies enjoy under a bill now before the U.S. Congress, according to this story from Midwest Energy News.

The Master Limited Partnership Parity Act “would let renewable companies form businesses that are taxed as a partnership yet can be publicly traded as stock,” according to the story. This means “they could get more investment and pay less tax.”

Midwest Energy News notes that a limited partnership “avoids the taxes paid by publicly traded corporations. Those are taxed once at the corporate level and their dividends are taxed again.” The limited partnerships do not pay taxes at the corporate level, yet they have the corporate advantages of limited liability and greater public investment.

This means “renewable energy companies in the Great Lakes and elsewhere could get access to cheaper funding,” says Michael Allen, owner of Energy Law Wisconsin, a legal consulting firm for Wisconsin government and businesses.

With the potential for renewable investment high in the Great Lakes region, “companies may use the business structure to attract more funding,” according to Nick Hylla, director of the Midwest Renewable Energy Association lobbying group.

Ohio, in particular, stands to benefit from the bill, according to Midwest Energy News.

“One of the strengths Ohio has is its manufacturing know-how, said Steve Caminati, vice president of public affairs at Advanced Energy Economy Ohio, a group representing renewable businesses,” according to the story.

He tells Midwest Energy News, “We're one of the national leaders in manufacturing technologies, or pieces and parts that go into technology, in the clean energy world.”

Mmmm … Mmmm … good

Campbell Soup Co. announced it has formed a partnership with CH4 Biogas LLC to create what they say is Ohio's first commercial biogas power plant to generate renewable electricity.

Camden, N.J.-based Campbell will direct waste generated from its soup, sauce and beverage production in Napoleon, Ohio, diverting 35% to 50% of its current waste away from Henry County landfills.

The anaerobic digester “will process material from area food processors, waste recyclers and local dairy farms, generating methane gas which will be used to fuel turbines that will produce energy for Campbell's existing beverage production and offsetting fossil fuel use,” the company said.

Power generated for the beverage facility will replace about 25% of Campbell's annual electricity use at the Napoleon facility. A 15-year power purchase and services agreement will allow Campbell to use 100% of the electricity generated at a flat cost.

"This new biogas technology will improve Campbell's Napoleon recycling rate to approximately 95 percent, reaching the company's 2020 destination goal for the site early," said Campbell spokesman Dave Stangis in a statement. "The use of biogas energy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of electricity in this facility by approximately 16,000 metric tons per year, or the equivalent of 3,000 cars."

The biogas power plant, Napoleon Biogas, will be on more than seven acres directly across the street from the Campbell site. Construction is under way and is slated for completion in mid-2013.